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In search of the Targa Florio, part two: Vic Elford and Porsche: Vic Elford and Porsche

June 18, 2012

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Vic Elford's 1968 Targa win was one of the greatest in the history of the race. Elford was always very quick on the Targa and set the fastest lap in three Targa events. After all, he had committed the entire track to memory.

Things were looking good in 1968 when disaster struck. A bad center-lock wheel nut on his Porsche 907 unscrewed itself and the wheel almost came off. He jumped out, tightened the nut and set off again, only to have the nut come loose again. This time, he slid into the curb and suffered a flat tire. The obliging crowd lifted the car up and he changed to the space saver, limped the car back to the pits and changed all of wheels and nuts.

It was only lap two of 10, and he was 18 minutes behind. With nothing to lose he drove flat out for the rest of the race. He drove seven of those 10 laps with partner Umberto Maglioli, and Maglioli drove the remainder. He took the lead on lap nine. Nobody knew whether the 907 would survive the pressure, but it did.

In a rare moment of appreciation, Porsche changed its policy of only featuring its cars on its victory posters, and this one time the poster was of the driver who beat all the odds.

We had a chance to talk to Elford about the Targa and the team.

Autoweek: How much input did drivers have into car setup?

Vic Elford: Initially, not much. We were given the cars and told to drive them. As time went by we managed to persuade them to change setup based on our feedback. But as we practiced at the Nürburgring, we began to have influence on the setup. At the Targa when I was driving the 908/3, I was banging on the rev limiter in every gear by the time I got to the end of the curve at [the town of] Cerda. I needed 200 more rpm in every gear, so they did change the ratios.

AW: How did the team work with Ferdinand Piech?

VE: Piech was, in my opinion, one of the greatest engineers ever, maybe better than his grandfather. I got on very well with him, and he was very persuasive at Porsche in getting what was needed to develop the cars. He had a lot of respect for [the legendary engine developer] Hans Mezger, and it was mutual.

AW: Where could you make up time at the Targa?

VE: “Everywhere—there is no specific place that is especially easy to make time.”

AW: You placed first, second and third in the Targa. Was there any race that was especially disappointing for you?

VE: The 1969 race was the most disappointing. We had an alternator go and lost too much time in the pits getting it fixed. We still came second, but we could have won.

AW: What was the worst of the Porsches that you drove at the Targa, and the best?

VE: The 908/3 was easily the best car I drove there—small, light and perfectly set up for the conditions. There was no worst car. I do remember that in 1970, Piech decided to bring a 917 to do a demo lap there, so I am the only driver who ever drove it on the circuit. It was all over the place, impossible to drive. By the time I finished the lap, they had to lift me out of the car.

During Elford's career he drove all of the great Porsches and was a fierce competitor. Yet he had a soft side: During the 1968 Targa practice, when fastest laps were being set, he stopped to check whether his Porsche teammate, Ludovico Scarfiotti, was OK after an accident. Then, in 1972 while driving for Alfa, he stopped during the Le Mans 24 race where Jo Bonnier had fatally crashed, running over to the other car, a Ferrari, to check whether the driver was still inside. For this the French government gave him the Legion of Honor.

About stopping for a fellow driver, Elford said, “Of course I did. Maybe it would not be necessary today.”

These days Elford remains a popular attendee at many historic Porsche events, and in 2012 he was honored at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance, where many of his cars were on display.

Watching the video of his driving the 908 across the manicured lawns, it is a world away from the unforgiving, blazing-hot dusty ribbon that is the Targa, with its cheering Sicilian crowds and minimal safety. Close your eyes, and there's Elford in the same car thundering down the old village, there for a moment only, and then gone, leaving only the dust behind him.

There was, however, another driver who knew the track as well as Elford did, a local schoolmaster. He had been born on the route, and he would become the hero of Sicily. His name is Nino Vacarella, and we were off to meet him in Palermo.